'Soft Touch' door pulls

Started by colcol, April 04, 2013, 10:26:32 PM

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colcol

I have a series 2, 2002 Model year 156 JTS,with 'soft touch' door pulls on the doors, that have a sprayed on finish so its not a hard plastic, now after 10 years in the Aussie sun its all peeling off.
Every time you touch one of the door pulls, you get black ooze on your hands with a feel like a child has touched it with 'ice cream hands'.
I took one off the door by removing rubber finisher cover off bottom of door pull, it just pulls out, then undo 2 cap screws with a 4 mm allen key, then pull the door pull out of the door, then there is multi pin plug, just press the tab down on the pin with a small flat blade screwdriver and it should just pull out, then press the 2 tabs on either side of the window switch and it will just come out thru the bottom of the door switch.
I tried removing the ooze with a scotch brite pad, but it got clogged up by the ooze, so i used an open terry towell with thinners on it and it melted the ooze and it didn't seem to melt the door pull, but don't get it too wet as it softens it a bit, just keep wiping over the ooze until it all melts and keep changing the rag as it gets dirty, when all the ooze is gone, let the thinners dry.
Get a dry clean terry towell and give the door pull a bit of a polish and it shines up a treat and it doesn't have that horrible sticky feel to it.
I resisted all temptation to cover the door pulls with imitation carbon fibre covering purchased off ebay, Colin.
1974 VW Passat [ist car] 1984 Alfa 33TI [daily driver] 2002 Alfa 156 JTS [daily driver]